


The Princess

by storiesfortravellers



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Genre: Badass, Fairy Tale Retellings, Gen, Revisionist Fairy Tale, Trope Subversion/Inversion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 18:25:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1314778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/pseuds/storiesfortravellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The princess is so much more than she seems.</p><p>For this prompt at comment-fic on lj: <i>fairy tales, any peasant, princess, or nobleman's daughter, they tell little girls to know their place - but she'll not be confined behind walls and trapped by tradition</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Princess

They tell her to stay in her room, in the high tower - it's safest there. They let her bring books from the library to keep her occupied, grateful that she shows no interest in the courtiers who might compromise her purity. They keep her out of sight, lest intrigues and plots corrupt her; there are those who would delight in killing the king's daughter, or worse, filling her mind with dangerous ideas.

She never complains, and everyone praises her for her ready obedience to her king.

They do not know that there is a loose stone in the wall of her room that hides all the things she has stolen. 

A sword and a fine collection of jeweled knives, stolen from the knights of the realm. She climbs down a long rope from her window at night, and takes what she wishes from her subjects. Her tiny window gives her a superior view of the knights' daily practice, and she trains for hours - long after they go home tired. When the time comes, she will know all of their moves, all of their weaknesses.

There is gold there as well. From her high perch, she can see the merchants' and courtiers' secret meetings, to say nothing of the whispers she hears when she sneaks among the castle's secret passageways. She could name every bribe, every deal, that everyone at court has made since she was a child. She knows who to bribe if she ever needed anything - whose morality would come cheap, whose honor would require a steeper price -- and she has enough information to blackmail anyone. Even her father.

She does study her books as well. She keeps a book about garden plants sitting on top of the large pile of tomes, dissuading her occasional visitors from looking beneath: books on dark magic, poisons, spells. She soaks up this knowledge, letting it seep into her like blood into cloth, and practices her skills from her small stone window.

She is a quiet girl, everyone knows, a girl who waits patiently to be called for, never complaining.

They do not know the real reason she waits. Or what will happen when the waiting is done.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A Collection of Stories for Travellers [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6435409) by [SomethingIncorporeal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomethingIncorporeal/pseuds/SomethingIncorporeal)




End file.
